1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to method for inserting fill yarns and performing yarn beatup, and more particularly to a method for performing those two tasks as a single process, thus eliminating the use of the reed beatup method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous methods of fill yarn insertion that range from the simple shuttles used in the eighteenth century to modern water jets. However, the method of fill yarn beatup has changed little in this same time period. A reed is still extensively used to beatup the fill yarns in a fabric.
In conventional weaving of fabrics, yarns are oriented in orthogonal warp and welt, or fill, directions. The warp direction is along the length of the fabric and the fill direction is transverse to the length of the fabric. The process of inserting the fill yarn includes forming a shed the warp yarns, pulling a fill yarn across the warp yarns in the shed, closing the shed, and a "beatup" of the fill yarns into the fell of the fabric with the reed. This process is essentially the same regardless of the degree of automation incorporated in the loom. However, the conventional reed used to beatup the fill yarn in a fabric cannot be utilized in structural performs that have yarns oriented along the bias of the fabric because the elements of the reed would hit the bias warp yarn.